Finally, we have begun installation of the Ledger board around the perimeter of the house where the deck meets it. This board is made up of two pressure treated 2x8s bolted through the rim joist of the house. This is the structural support that the joists of the deck will tie into with joist hangers.
This is definitely an important part of the deck because it establishes the level of the deck and is a major structural component, in fact, this is the part blamed in most catastrophic deck failures, so it’s important to get it right, even if our deck is less than two feet high.
For now the ledger board is just secured with 3″ deck screws to get it aligned and level. Once it is perfect we can proceed with drilling the big holes through to the basement and bolting it in nice and tight.
The critical measurement for us was the height relative to the sliding door, so we used some pieces of decking to measure the space to the bottom of the sill of the sliding door.

This was where we needed to start and then using the level we work our way around the house lining up the corner and then using the big 6 foot level to set the height.